Animal of the Month: the lesser known penguins

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

In order to celebrate the myriad of animals that inhabit planet Earth, we're featuring a different animal every month through our Animal of the Month series. Keep a look out for #AnimalOTM across social media.

Penguins have fascinated zoologists, explorers, and the general public for centuries. Their Latin name—Sphenisciformes—is a mixture of Latin and Greek derivatives, meaning ‘small wedge shaped’, after the distinctive form of their flightless wings. The genus of penguins comprises more than just the famous Emperors of the Antarctic, and while public awareness is growing, many of the seventeen extant members of this bird family, their habitats, and threats to their survival, remain relatively unknown.

This April, to celebrate our Animal of the Month, we explore four of the lesser known members of the penguin family tree.

Adélie Penguin

The Adélie Penguin is one of the most southerly venturing species’ outside of the tundra-dwelling Emperor Penguins. Their colonies are found all across the Antarctic coast, with one ‘super-colony’ of an estimated 1.5 million birds in the remote Danger Islands near South America, visible even from space.

African penguin

Native to the sun-soaked islands between South Africa and Namibia, the African Penguin is sometimes known by its comical pseudonym, “The Jackass Penguin”, on account of its distinctive, throaty call resembling a braying donkey.

Today, the modern African Penguin is threatened by near extinction, with around only 70,000 breeding pairs on the planet—less than 10% of the population that existed in 1900. This is caused mostly by human disruption of their coastal habitats, and intensive fishing for schoaling fish like anchovies and sardines, which form the majority of their diet.

Galápagos Penguin

As its name suggests, the Galápagos Penguin is the only species found in the rich biodiversity of the Galápagos Islands off the Ecuadorian coast, and the only to even venture north of the equator.

At around 20 inches long, the Galápagos Penguin is one of the smallest members of the bird family. They survive the warmer climate near to the equator by sheltering from sunlight on rocky beaches, and swimming in surrounding waters which are cooled by currents flowing from the southerly reaches of Latin America.

Like many penguin species’, the survival of the Galápagos Penguin is threatened by various human factors: overfishing reducing the availability of their diet; by-catching of penguins in fishing nets; oil spills and other pollutants; and the introduction of dogs, cats and rats to the delicate biodiversity of the Galápagos. As a result, the penguin is an endangered species, and the rarest variety of penguin in the world.

Little Blue Penguin

The aptly named Little Blue Penguin is the smallest living penguin species, standing at just 13 inches tall. Sometimes known as the “Fairy Penguin”, the blueish tinge to their feathers is unique amongst all penguin species’.

However, their desire to return to these sites shows remarkable ingenuity: in the 1980’s, when a coastal homeowner in Manly Point, Australia built a seawall along the edge of his property, the penguins were found burrowing through a drainage pipe, and even ascending steep stairs—no mean feat for a Little Blue Penguin—to reach their breeding grounds.

Like all animals, the survival of penguins is threatened by human activity. For some, like the Galápagos and African Penguins, this is a particularly imminent threat. But with greater understanding of the immense variations of the penguin family, conservation work stands a greater chance of preserving these remarkable, monochrome birds.

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